cashback does it ever work?

checked quidco, after the payout date falling back 4 times it now shows declined.

are these sites just a scam?

I've earned over a grand since joining Quidco five years ago. I've had to occasionally raise claims due to tracking problems, and in almost all cases I've been successful (I lost out on my tumble drier cash-back when Comet went bust).

As I understand it really comes down to the individual companies, their own policies and tracking procedures. I was already a Plusnet customer before joining Quidco, so I don't have any direct experience with them.

so why did it say tracked for a month and then declined?

it would seem.

either it lied about the tracking.
or a manual decline was issued by plusnet or quidco.

I have raised a claim and the site is telling me they cant even process my claim, instead I have to wait a undisclosed period of time because apparently plusnet require a wait for claim's to be submitted.

this to me is a breach of contract.

Have you seen http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,1120...

Yes, it does work, I've had lots of cashback via Quidco from various reatailers. Only once have I had to raise a claim, and that was resolved in my favour.

It's not lying about it tracking, but sometimes things do get declined -either correctly (for various reasons as outlined on the Quidco site) or sometimes incorrectly.Hence the claims system. Are you sure it didn't say what the minimum time is for a claim to be processed. When I had a quick look it said claims would be held for 30 days from the purchase date (which is a fairly typical time I think) Though watch the cutoff date, for claims for declined transactions which is within 45 days of being declined.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

are these sites just a scam?

I've had a lot of money from both Quidco and TopCashBack (well over £1000 in total).

Tracking problems are often caused by the presence of cookies from the target site pre-dating the purchase visit. I use Chrome for normal use and IE for making cashback purchases in which event I always clear all cookies before the visit.

I've had a couple of issues which got resolved and one declined by Interflora which I don't think ever was sorted out. I actually got a payment from one site where I had started out making a purchase but didn't complete the payment for some reason or other.

CashBack sites are no scam. The only people scammed are those who don't use them for change of ISP, insurance. mobile, etc. etc. It often even pays to change just to get cashback. Although it isn't guaranteed you usually get it. I even promote TopCasBack for referral commisions on a couple of my websites and have made a few quid from those referrals.

I'm on a Quidco £100 for Plusnet and will be mightily annoyed if I don't get it.

There's also the proviso in general about making sure all cookies to do with the retailer site are deleted from your browser, (or use a clean browser wrt the retailer site), before going in through a cashback site. If it is clear to the retailer that the referral by the cashback site is not genuine, but merely a money-grab, most retailers will reject it.

Advice that many of us used routinely to give out to people using cashback sites.

In Chrysalis's case I think there may be a possibility this is the problem.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 06-Jan-14 11:45:03)

Quidco used to be great(over £1k paid to me) but has been pants over the last 18 months or so - usually never track and always have to raise cases to get the cashback so have given up with it.

Topcashback - excellent - these are the default ones for me now a days - always worked never and issue - have done over £350 cashback from Plusnet in the last few months too using topcashback and £550 in the last year with them.

I have only once had a cashback track with quidco, all the others i had to raise a claim, and i'm currently waiting on 2 different retailers, and one company is currently not offering cashbacks on quidco or top cashback,
If you submit a claim for a failed cashback, quidco will display the time's & date's that you used their link to which ever company , so they do have a record of you visiting the web site , it's a lack of comunication on the retailers part IMO, in that they don't confirm a purchase with quidco, in order for it to actually track, many don't seem to bother, so your purchase doesnt track, but after raising a claim for a missing cashback after the waiting period, it can just show approved or even paid as there are 3 stages tracking approval and payment , many retailers don't seem to get the gist of

ok it seems you all getting confused.

It isnt telling me I have to wait still been processed etc.

Its telling me plusnet have declined the cashback.

the terms of sale was I would have my cash by the end of january, have a screenshot and printed of terms and conditions (as part of their premium service).

So its not a waiting problem, it has actually been declined, hence the faq you posted is meaningless it does not apply to my case.

I used a brand new browser in a new VM I had setup, the cookies would have been clean, no privacy or ad blocking software was installled on this VM, the browser was in its default configuration. If quidco doesnt work in a default setup then what gives.

So

1 - It WAS tracked according to quidco. Screenshot was taken.
2 - I had a payout date of 19 jan, slipped to 27 jan, slipped to 14 feb, slipped to 26 feb.
3 - Then after the 4 slips it said declined, without a reason. It was tracked for 3+ weeks then declined, why not declined after 1 day? They wait until I am tied into a contract?
4 - I submitted my claim and now quidco are stating they have it on hold for a indefenite period.

I posted today on plusnet's forums and it was ignored, so I googled, past instances of people with the same problem waiting for 6+ months, plusnet either ignoring them or saying some 'marketing' department has to fix it.
so it seems I wil be forced to do an hour+ call to plusnet again, and maybe a ASA submittion as I am considering if this falls under advertising or not.

update - It was changed to declined the same day my service went live, as if they waited for that date, quidco told me plusnet manually declined it.

Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 06-Jan-14 17:20:29)